Jennifer Appel and Tasha Fuiava — along with dogs Zeus and Valentine — embarked on a 2,700-mile journey from Hawaii to Tahiti on May 3 but got swept up in what they described as an enormous storm. Their sailboat began to malfunction shortly after and their boat floated farther and farther off-course.

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Appel did acknowledge they spoke to the Coast Guard when the storm ended, but only three days after they initially set sail. The next time they'd speak with them would be in October when they were rescued.

When asked why they didn't send out a distress signal amid the harrowing journey, Appel told Matt Lauer they decided to take a chance with "the man upstairs, who gave us grace and allowed us to be here today."

Jennifer Appel (r.) and Tasha Fuiava sit with their dogs on the USS Ashland on Oct. 30, 2017. (Koji Ueda/AP)

She added that it made more sense to wait out the sharks ramming against the hull of their 50-foot sailboat than wait as long as a day for the Coast Guard to find them on a flyover.

"We were too ignorant to realize what was going on," Appel said during the Today appearance. "The sharks were telling us, 'You're in our living room and you're not leaving fast enough.' And we didn't realize that was what we were being told before we were too late."

Thanks to the advice of a local fisherman, the two had packed a year's worth of food and a water purifier that allowed them to survive their journey.

They were eventually spotted by a fishing vessel roughly 900 miles off the coast of Japan and those onboard contacted the U.S. Coast Guard.

Lauer told the women several aspects of their story have people skeptical, including the part about the sharks.

Since Appel and Fuiava have returned, scientists have pointed out that sharks don't typically behave in the manner described by the women. Meteorologists have also pointed out the weather at the time they started their journey did not call for storms as serious as the one they say knocked them off-course.

Sailors from the USS Ashland approach a sailboat with two Honolulu women and their dogs aboard as they are rescued after being lost at sea. (Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Jonathan Clay/AP)

"I'm used to sailing in the Hawaiian waters so I'm used to small storms coming up," Appel said. "I didn't expect it to be what it was. I said Tasha, 'You know if I make a mistake doing this we're going to die tonight.' "

She added that while she understood "fish stories," any storm would feel bigger on a small sailboat and that storm advisories put out underestimated the "downdrafts we saw."

When asked about the pushback they've received on their story, the women reminded Lauer it was the Navy who called the media — not them — when they boarded the USS Ashland for the first time.

"It's a unique situation and we were not expecting it," Appel said. "We're enjoying the ride and we're glad to be here."